GAME REPORT

Oradea Hang On For Upset Win

CSM Oradea came close to squandering a 20-point lead before hanging on to upset Royal Hali Gaziantep 74-69 for their first win in Group B of the EuroChallenge.

Oradea led almost from the start and had built a 65-45 advantage late in the third quarter with Royal Hali, who started the night 2-0 against their winless opponents, decidedly off colour.

They found their rhythm in the fourth quarter and they cut the gap all the way to 71-67 inside the final minute, but William Franklin came up with key free throws to preserve the win for Oradea.

Royal Hali struggled for offensive rhythm early on as they allowed Oradea to build a tidy lead, going 19-11 when Sean Denison completed a three-point play from the line to start the second quarter.

Eight unanswered points before the break made it 40-27 and when Daniel Dillon's jump-shot capped a 6-0 spurt the third quarter ended 65-45.

That should have been that but Royal Hali finally came to life after Terrico White - making his EuroChallenge debut - got things going with a three-pointer.

White then had another three in the 11-0 run which made it 71-67 when Stanley Burell split a pair of free throws with 55 seconds left.

Franklin replied with two more for Oradea and, after Murat Goktas missed a three for Royal Hali, added one more with 16 seconds left to make it 74-67.

Royal Hali struggled to get a shot away to keep the rally alive, and although Burell scored with two seconds left, it was too late.

Denison had 13 points and 13 boards for Oradea, with Dillon and Vujadin Subotic each adding 12.

Dejan Borovnjak collected 23 points for Royal Hali and Burell had 17.

COACH QUOTES

Quotes Royal Hali Gaziantep vs. CSM Oradea

Oradea head coach Cristian Achim"First, I am too happy because we won. I believe that we deserve this victory because at least we were the better team for 35 minutes. This win is our first win in Europe as a team and as a head coach from my side."

Oradea player Daniel Dillon

"I think we played good as a group. We scored in key moments and we played good defence."

Gaziantep head coach Aziz Bekir

"We didn't organise at the beginning and we tried to catch them but the time wasn't enough to win."

Gaziantep player Sertac Sanli

"It was an important game for us to lead the group. They found easy scores against us and we made easy turnovers. The last five minutes, we almost caught them but the time wasn't enough to win the game."